BME Seminar Series - Dr. Kuei-Chun Wang, University of California San Diego

Assistant Project Scientist, Institute of Engineering in Medicine, University of California San Diego

Abstract: 

"Targeting Atherosclerosis: From Mechanobiology to Nanomedicine"

Atherosclerosis is the most common cause of myocardial infarction and stroke. My professional goal is to enhance our fundamental understanding of atherosclerosis and apply innovative methods to accelerate the translation of such discoveries into more effective therapies. In this talk, I will discuss my recent efforts towards understanding the pathogenesis and developing nanomedicine for atherosclerosis. First, I will describe the hemodynamic regulation of vascular homeostasis and atherogenesis and my work in deciphering the regulatory mechanism of YAP/TAZ, two critical mechanotransducers, in mediating the inflammatory endothelial phenotypes and development of atherosclerotic lesion. Second, I will discuss the lesion-targeted nanoparticle delivery system we established and the use of these nanocarriers to deliver drug/small RNAs to treat atherosclerosis.

 

Bio:

I received my Bachelor degree in Chemical Engineering and my Master degree in Molecular Cellular Biology from the National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan. With the support of pre-doctoral fellowships from the government of Taiwan and the American Heart Association (AHA), I completed my Ph.D. in Bioengineering from UCSD, under the mentorship of Dr. Shu Chien. I then completed my post-doctoral training in the Institute of Engineering in Medicine at UCSD. I received an AHA Scientist Development Grant and a NIH K99/R00 Pathway-to-Independence award in 2017 and since then have been promoted to my current position, an assistant project scientist in IEM at UCSD.